Physical mechanisms of CO2-laser-induced rapid structural changes in glass-ceramics

Laser-induced local structural changes in glass-ceramics have recently been the subject of intense research interest in connection with analytical, aerospace, optical-memory and other advanced applications. In this paper, we demonstrate that important features of such processes are very high rates and unusual kinetics. These features are interpreted in terms of thermophysical kinetics and a novel view of amorphous materials as vacancy-distorted crystals.